MUMBAI: The news feed is getting a little more “you” in it. Google is rolling out new personalisation tools across Search, Discover and Google News, giving users greater control over the sources, subjects and formats that appear while they browse.
One of the most notable additions is a new Preferred Sources button that publishers can embed directly on their websites. Readers can use the button to add a publication to their Preferred Sources on Google before returning to the page they were reading.
Once selected, those publications can receive greater prominence in Top Stories and may also be identified in AI Overviews and AI Mode. Google said users have already selected more than 600,000 unique sources as preferred sources.
For publishers, the feature offers another way to turn a casual reader into a more deliberate follower by allowing audiences to signal which outlets they want Google to prioritise.
Google is also giving its Discover feed a more precise steering wheel. Through the three-dot menu on content in the Google app, users will be able to tell Google what topics, links or types of content they want to see more or less of.
The feed will use those instructions to adjust recommendations and remember the preferences, giving users more say over what lands in their scrolling stream rather than relying solely on Google’s existing recommendation signals.
Meanwhile, the Google News app on Android is getting customisable audio briefings. Users will be able to select specific topics for their daily briefings, with stories accompanied by source information and links to the full articles.
The audio briefings can also provide deeper coverage of major stories through publishers participating in Google’s news AI pilot programme, bringing more control over both the subjects and depth of the news users hear.
Together, the changes push Google’s news products towards a more personalised model, one where users can choose their sources, tune their interests and decide how they consume the day’s headlines.
For publishers, meanwhile, the Preferred Sources feature could prove particularly useful as competition for visibility intensifies across traditional search results, AI-generated answers and personalised feeds.
